The St. Vincent and the Grenadines government Monday called on the United States to do more to curb the easy access of illegal weapons and their easy exportation to Latin America and the Caribbean.
Prime Minister Dr. Ralph Gonsalves decried the proliferation of guns manufactured in the United States and violence associated with the illegal drugs trade as the main cause for the high rate of murders in some Latin American and Caribbean countries.
“The United States of America had to do something about not having the easy access to guns and the easy exportation of guns. They have the resources to help us with that,” he said noting that Mexico has circulated a draft resolution to be discussed at the January 24 meeting in Argentina of the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC) “on this very matter”.
The draft notes that the CELAC members meeting in Bueno Aires for their seventh summit “acknowledges that while the region represents eight percent of the world population, it experiences 37 percent of the world’s homicide mostly caused by firearms that have been manufactured or distributed in the United States and then trafficked in the region”.
Gonsalves said the draft also states as a result, CELAC is urging the strengthening of national efforts to reinforce mechanisms to control the legal trade and transfer of firearms in order to “combat illegal flows which generate situation of violence and put at risk the security and integrity of the civilian population, especially women, youth and adolescent”.
Mexico is also urging the arms industry in the United States to implement disciplinary measures that will prevent those dealers with irregular behavior controlling the illegal arms trade in the region, as well as requiring gun dealers to step up to ensure there are no sales to straw buyers through reasonable identity checks.
He said the draft resolution is also urging the gun industry to incorporate technology to make it much easier to track illegal weapons.
Gonsalves said seven of the ten countries with the highest homicide rate per 100,000 in the world are from Latin America and the Caribbean including Jamaica.
CMC/
